Made with Lots of Love: Bean & Beef Skillet

When Broad’s mother passed away, one of the most important items we inherited from her was her recipe collection. She went through many different versions of the recipe organizer but all the recipes she’s made or wanted to make have survived the years. Now that we have it, we wanted to do something special with it and share some of these recipes with you.

Disclaimer: Almost all of these recipes are comfort food and are not exactly healthy. Growing up, Broad was an athlete all year round. She could eat anything and would burn it off at practice. We can’t exactly eat like 15 year old athletes anymore. So, we’re going to attempt to put our own healthy spin on these recipes. We will also report if that changes the flavor. We try and eat healthy and smart as much as possible but sometimes you just need a good home cooked meal that mom would make…probably during winter…and probably with things that were just laying around the house.

Why “lots of love”? It’s something Broad’s mom would say. She signed every card with that. She would say that the secret ingredient in her best homemade meals was lots of love. So we thought that would be the perfect name for this segment.

Bean & Beef Skillet Ingredients 

• 1 lb ground chuck
• 1 28oz can Bush’s homestyle baked beans (we didn’t use the whole can)
• Barbecue sauce (your preferred kind) (eye it, we used a little less than 1/3 cup)
• 1 8 oz can tomato sauce
• 4 oz finely shredded cheddar cheese.
• 8 oz elbow macaroni (we used Banza chickpea pasta)
• Spices (mom’s preferred spices for almost everything was salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, Goya Sazón)

Directions

1. In a large skillet, brown the meat with the spices. Drain the meat when cooked.
2. Pour liquid off the beans, pour into skillet with meat, pour bbq sauce and stir.
3. Add tomato sauce and stir.
4. Add more spices, your desired amount and stir.
5. Cook on medium-low, covered, for about 1 hour.
6. Boil noodles, drain then add to meat mix.
7. Top with cheese, allow to melt and then serve.

Enjoy! It’s a pretty hearty meal. It’ll serve at least four people.